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A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

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Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#171
A coworker's story:

Some clients are flying into Redmond for a meeting, and he's picking them up from the airport. They call. "We're here. Where are you?"

"Well, I'm at the airport. Where are you?"

"I told you, we're at the airport. How can you miss us? We're the only people here. This place is tiny!"

They had flown into Redmond, Oregon, which has an attached municipal airport, instead of Seattle-Tacoma. The meeting is delayed while they arrange to fly to the correct state.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#172
post #124
post #66

There was a time where I use to fly internationally very frequently. Very use to having the manager sort out the car/flight/hotel with our travel agent - so for the most part I just grabbed the tickets and go. Manager asked me - can you go to London? It was pretty cold in Minnesota, and London sounded nice. Turned brain off, got on the flight, and landed way too early. London, Canada... ffs, and it was even colder th…

I live in London Ontario, right by the Thames. Got hassled at customs in Netherlands being asked why my Canadian passport was issued from England. People always say they can't hear the accent when I say I'm from London (besides that time at customs they were accusing my lisp of sounding a bit English) There's also a Paris Ontario

> I live in London Ontario, right by the Thames.

Wow, I thought you probably meant the latter part as a joke until I looked it up!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_River_(Ontario)

Thanks for the geography lesson.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#173
post #64

I have heard that Americans are terrible at geography (no offense), but this is really quite extreme... Edit: ok, some people got offended.

Are you suggesting we should have put Bangor somewhere else? As a New England resident, I am open to this idea.

Speaking of fun things named Bangor, there was Naval Submarine Base Bangor, the primary sub base for the US Navy strategic nuclear missile submarine fleet... of the Pacific ocean! It was renamed to Naval Base Kitsap in 2004, and is a couple dozen miles outside Seattle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Base_Kitsap

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#174
This reads word for word like the plot of an episode of the Simpsons.

Homer the blissfully ignorant brewery worker takes the trip of his life but ends up at the wrong side of the continent from his intended destination where he becomes a local celebrity and gets coersed into all kinds of harmless adventures, like kissing the local seal. As his boss wants capitalize on his fame without giving him a raise, he retaliates by advertising their competitor on national television. He ends up back home, without a job, and with a recurring tax bill for a piece of land he has no intention of ever using. Nonetheless happier than ever.

I love how life is often stranger than fiction.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#175

My first job was at a Staples office supply store in a town known for its tourism and glitz and glamour. Several times in my 15 months at that store, a German tourist would be seen wandering around the store, clearly lost. More than once they asked, in broken English, "where is the Milk?" staple /ˈstāpəl/ plural noun: staples 1. a main or important element of something, especially of a diet. "bread, milk, and other s…

Was this a very long time ago? Staples is a well known chain of office supply stores in Germany as well.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#176
I was once in Sofia, Bulgaria, trying to find the train to Bucharest. We asked not one, not two, but three people to confirm that we were on the correct train. They all confirmed it! ...kind of, correcting the pronunciation each time.

Nope. Apparently there's some very similar sounding place in Bulgaria to my USA pronunciation of Bucharest

I'd love to remember the name of the place.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#177
I lived in South London (England) for many years.

There is the famous 'Covent Garden Market' and a more industrial 'New Covent Garden Market' a few mile away.

Occasionally I'd see very nicely dressed American tourists (imagine, a father in cargo shorts with a map in hand. And a wife and kids with brightly coloured tourist-clothes). All heading towards the industrial area. The first few times this happened, I actually pointed them to where I thought they wanted to go... the warehouses.

I guess we all try to fit information as best as we can with the current context. So if someone says take me to down-town-San-Fransisco... and the last part seems like non-sense... we would often just point them to whatever downtown is nearby.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#178
I know of a group of Penn State students that were meeting for Spring Break in Ocean City. Most went to MD, but at least one car-full went to NJ by mistake.

A couple of decades ago I ran into a girlfriend that I used to see. I was working out of Pittsburgh, and I told her I was moving to Glendale, a neighborhood off the Parkway. She excitedly told me that she was also. But she was moving to California (and not the California in Pennsylvania).

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#179

A coworker's story: Some clients are flying into Redmond for a meeting, and he's picking them up from the airport. They call. "We're here. Where are you?" "Well, I'm at the airport. Where are you?" "I told you, we're at the airport. How can you miss us? We're the only people here. This place is tiny!" They had flown into Redmond, Oregon, which has an attached municipal airport, instead of Seattle-Tacoma. The meeting…

How did that even happen? Did they not notice getting into the tiniest plane, possibly even a prop plane.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#180
This reminds me of some funny anecdote about (mostly) American tourists on a visit to Amsterdam (dunno if they are true). Apparently with all the historical houses and them so crammed together in the city center with tight allies winding through them, some tourists get the impression that they are in a theme park. On ocassion, as the story goes, tourist would ask a resident to their astonishment: "Pardon me Madam, but could you tell me where the exit is?".

Note that we have a couple such 'theme parks', like the Zaanse Schans [0] and Open Air Museum [1]. There are other places that really feel like theme parks to tourists, but are actually true residential areas where people live their daily lives. For instance Giethoorn [2] and Volendam [3]. Especially in Giethoorn this status is a mixed bag and residents - just like in Venice - aren't always that happy with huge influx of tourists.

[0] https://www.dezaanseschans.nl/en/

[1] https://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/?taal=en

[2] https://giethoornvillage.com/

[3] https://www.visit-volendam.com/

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